Overview Of The Two Ways To Live

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Romans 8:1-11

8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

 
 

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Verses 1–11 are an overview of Paul’s basic argument, namely that there are two ways to live:

1. You can live according to the flesh—according to the ways of the world. This way leads to death.
2. Or, you can live according to the Spirit. This way is life and leads to life. Life in the Spirit is made possible by trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus, i.e., it is by faith in Christ.

This is the only true difference between people: those who are in the world and headed toward death, and those who are in the Spirit and headed toward life.

And the way you move from death to life is simply through trust in Jesus.